As the popularity of wireless communications systems increases and the variety of types of data communications services offered increases, there is an ever increasing demand for the limited available air link resources, e.g., frequency spectrum, allocated to a given base station for its cell. In addition, the number of users and user demand for resources can vary as a function of time and events which can cause anticipated and unanticipated peaks in demand. High numbers of concurrent active users in a cell create challenges to satisfy the users' needs to communicate uplink and/or downlink user data in a timely manner while not expending a large portion of those air link resources for control signaling purposes. Resources that are utilized for control signaling purposes such as assignments reduce the amount of resources available to communicate user data. Complicating the efficient use of resources is the fact that, there are typically a variety of different types of users and/or applications which may have different resource demands and requirements.
One method of allocating control resources is for a base station to subdivide a particular control resource into uniform portions, for a wireless terminal to send a resource request when it needs to communicate an individual message or report and for the base station to individually assign one of the resource portions to that wireless terminal if available. Then the wireless terminal sends the control message or report over the assigned resource portion. This approach involves significant overhead signaling. Another alternative is to implement shared control channel resources. A wireless terminal sends control messages including wireless terminal identification information using the shared resources as needed; however, collisions may occur with other wireless terminals attempting to use the same resources concurrently resulting in unsuccessful communication and the need for retransmission. In some such approaches acknowledgement signaling is also used to improve communications, but this also adds overhead. Another approach involves setting aside a fixed amount of control channel resources for each wireless terminal to be operated in an On state concurrently; however this approach may result in inefficiencies as different wireless terminal types may have different resource needs and/or the same wireless terminal may have different resource needs at different times, e.g., due to different channel condition, applications being used, power availability, etc.
While the known resource allocation methods may be adequate for some applications, it would be beneficial if new and improved methods and apparatus were available for resource allocation. It would be desirable if at least some new methods and apparatus could efficiently support a high number of users, provide flexibility in terms of accommodating different types of users/applications/current needs, and/or limit control signaling overhead as compared to other techniques. Methods and apparatus that efficiently communicate resource allocation and/or support a plurality of different level of On state operation would be beneficial.